They split the journey. Time split it again.
October 14, 1989: the first disk. November 14: the second. They took Journey to the West — the monkey, the monk — and dropped them into a comedy, split across two disks. One journey, in two parts. A month between them. The Disk System was ending, but Nintendo put both halves out. And then time split those two halves again.
Every pair of Yuuyuki that reaches me is missing one of its two disks. Not now and then. Every time.
A box with half a game in it looks like something that was given up on. It is here because somebody kept that half for thirty-five years.
And this half goes on to the next person.
About this game
On 14 October 1989, Nintendo put the first half of Yuuyuki on a Disk Card. The second half arrived a month later, on 14 November, as a disk of its own.
The game is a comedy. It takes Journey to the West — the monkey, the monk, the river demon — and drops those figures into situations that are anything but ancient. A television commercial ran for it that autumn. No Disk System game ever got another one.
Gallery
The Story Behind
A Famicom cartridge had to be ordered from Nintendo in a minimum run of ten thousand, paid for before a single copy sold. A Disk Card cost 500 yen to rewrite at a kiosk inside a shop. The difference was not convenience. It was who carried the risk.
That arithmetic decided what got made. Namco and Hudson, the largest third parties of the era, never put a single new title on the format, because the licence split the copyright. Nearly two hundred games appeared anyway, made largely by companies small enough that ten thousand cartridges would have ended them. And the shape of those games kept changing: in 1986, stories and role-playing games were under a tenth of everything new on disk. By 1989, the year Yuuyuki arrived, they were a quarter of it.
Tricks & Tales
Yuuyuki was built by Pax Softnica, a small contracted studio, working under Nintendo. Years later the studio’s president described the stretch the company had come through shortly before this series began: he could not pay the rent, he slept at the company, he lived on flour. Of Shin Onigashima — the first Famicom Fairytales game — he said it was the only game he ever worked on that made him cry.
The same studio had already worked out how to hide the Disk System’s weakness: load nothing while a chapter is being played, and compress the data so the waiting between chapters stays short. Volleyball was an earlier job of theirs for Nintendo. People carried it back to those kiosks nine hundred and seventy thousand times, making it the second most rewritten Disk Card in the country.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Released exclusively in Japan for the Famicom Disk System in two separate disk releases. Never officially localized outside Japan. The two-part structure means collectors seek both the 前編 (Part 1) and 後編 (Part 2) disks for a complete set.
Maintenance Tips
The drive belt is the most critical maintenance item. The original rubber belt (approximately 31mm diameter) stretches and eventually fails after decades of storage, preventing the drive from reading disks. Replacement belts are widely available from retro hardware suppliers and require no special tools -- a documented procedure exists in multiple collector guides. After belt replacement, the drive may need alignment, which is a more involved process. The RAM adapter board contains electrolytic capacitors that should be recapped if the unit is used regularly -- leaking capacitors can damage the PCB and corrupt disk reads. Clean the battery compartment with vinegar and a cotton swab if corrosion is present. FDS disks should be stored in their cases away from magnetic sources.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Famicom Fairytales: Yuyuki copies regularly.
What hardware do I need to play a Famicom Disk System game?
An FDS game requires three components: a Famicom console, the RAM Adapter (which plugs into the cartridge slot), and the Disk Drive unit (connected to the RAM Adapter). The drive requires its own power supply (six C-cell batteries or an AC adapter). Without both the RAM Adapter and disk drive, FDS disks cannot be played. The Famicom Disk System was sold exclusively in Japan and was never released elsewhere.
Are Famicom Disk System disks and drives still reliable after 35+ years?
Disk reliability varies — the magnetic media can degrade over time. More commonly, the rubber drive belt inside the FDS disk unit degrades with age, causing read errors even on undamaged disks. Belt replacement is the most common and important FDS maintenance repair. If you plan to use FDS games, have the drive belt inspected before use. A working drive with a fresh belt can read original disks reliably.
How does saving work on Famicom Disk System games?
FDS games save directly back to the floppy disk itself — there is no internal battery backup. Data is written to the disk after the save command is given, so the disk can be overwritten. To protect original game data, cover the write-enable notch with tape to make the disk read-only. Many collectors keep one play copy and one archival copy for important titles. Never power off the Famicom during a disk write operation.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Famicom Fairytales: Yuyuki
A short checklist for buying a used Famicom Disk System disk wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Inspect the disk and its shell
Disk System media is fragile — the magnetic disk can wear, and saves are written back onto the disk itself.
Ask whether it was tested and reads reliably; look for cracks or a warped shell in photos.
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Make sure it fits your console
This is Japanese Famicom Disk System media and requires a Famicom with a working Disk System drive.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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Mind the drive belt on the console side
Disk System drives commonly need a replacement belt to read reliably — this is a console matter, not the disk.
If reading is unreliable, the console's belt is the usual culprit, not the game.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See what we have in stock →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Famicom Fairytales: Yuyuki sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑From the Museum's Screening Room
Famicom Mukashibanashi Yuuyuuki — Feature